Deuteronomy 4
Legacy Standard Bible
Keep the Commandments of Yahweh
4 “So now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which (A)I am teaching you to do, so that (B)you may live and go in and take possession of the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 (C)You shall not add to the word which (D)I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I am commanding you. 3 (E)Your eyes have seen what Yahweh has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who walked after Baal-peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed [a]them from among you. 4 But you who clung to Yahweh your God are alive today, every one of you.
5 “See, I have taught you statutes and judgments (F)just as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. 6 You shall keep and do them, (G)for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For (H)what great nation is there that has a god (I)so near to it as is Yahweh our God (J)whenever we call on Him? 8 Or what great nation is there that has (K)statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?
9 “Only (L)keep yourself and keep your soul very carefully, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart (M)all the days of your life. But (N)make them known to your sons and to your grandsons. 10 Remember the day you stood before Yahweh your God at Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may cause them to hear My words (O)so they may learn to [b]fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may (P)teach their children.’ 11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, (Q)and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud, and dense gloom. 12 Then Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—only a voice. 13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to do, that is, (R)the Ten [c]Commandments; and (S)He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it.
15 “So (T)keep your souls very carefully, since you did not see any (U)form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 lest you (V)act corruptly and (W)make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of (X)any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth, 19 and lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, (Y)all the host of heaven, (Z)and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which Yahweh your God has apportioned for all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out of (AA)the iron furnace, from Egypt, to (AB)be a people for His own inheritance, as today.
21 “(AC)Now Yahweh was angry with me on your account and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 For (AD)I will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this (AE)good land. 23 So keep yourselves, (AF)lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God which He cut with you and (AG)make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which Yahweh your God has commanded you. 24 For Yahweh your God is a (AH)consuming fire, a (AI)jealous God.
25 “When you [d]become the father of children and children’s children and remain long in the land and (AJ)act corruptly and (AK)make [e]a graven image in the form of anything and (AL)do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God so as to provoke Him to anger, 26 I (AM)call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will (AN)surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not prolong your days on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And Yahweh will (AO)scatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations where Yahweh drives you. 28 (AP)And there you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, (AQ)wood and stone, (AR)which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 (AS)But from there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find Him, for you will search for Him (AT)with all your heart and all your soul. 30 When you (AU)are in distress and all these things have come upon you, (AV)in the last days (AW)you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to His voice. 31 For Yahweh your God is a (AX)compassionate God; (AY)He will not fail you nor (AZ)destroy you nor (BA)forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
32 “Indeed, (BB)ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the (BC)day that God created [f]man on the earth, and inquire (BD)from one end of the heavens to the other. (BE)Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 33 (BF)Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and lived? 34 (BG)Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation (BH)with trials, with signs and wonders and with war and (BI)with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terrors, [g]as Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown that you might know that Yahweh, He is God; (BJ)there is no other besides Him. 36 (BK)Out of the heavens He caused you to hear His voice (BL)to discipline you; and on earth He caused you to see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37 [h](BM)Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them. And He [i](BN)personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 38 dispossessing before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and (BO)to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39 Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that (BP)Yahweh, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40 (BQ)So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you today, that (BR)it may go well with you and with your children after you, and (BS)that you may prolong your days on the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for all the days.”
41 (BT)Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, 42 that a manslayer might flee there, who slew his neighbor [j]without premeditation, [k]not hating him previously; so he shall flee to one of these cities that he might live: 43 (BU)Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
44 Now this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel; 45 these are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out from Egypt, 46 across the Jordan, in the valley (BV)opposite Beth-peor, in the land of (BW)Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck down when they came out from Egypt. 47 And they took possession of his land and the land of (BX)Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, 48 from (BY)Aroer, which is on the edge of the [l]valley of Arnon, even as far as (BZ)Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), 49 with all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, even as far as the sea of the Arabah, [m]at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 4:3 Lit him
- Deuteronomy 4:10 Or reverence
- Deuteronomy 4:13 Lit Words
- Deuteronomy 4:25 Lit beget
- Deuteronomy 4:25 Or an idol
- Deuteronomy 4:32 Or Adam
- Deuteronomy 4:34 Lit according to all that
- Deuteronomy 4:37 Lit And instead, because
- Deuteronomy 4:37 Lit with His presence
- Deuteronomy 4:42 Lit without knowledge
- Deuteronomy 4:42 Lit and he was not hating him previously
- Deuteronomy 4:48 Or wadi
- Deuteronomy 4:49 Lit under
Deuteronomy 4
Common English Bible
The events at Mount Horeb
4 Now, Israel, in light of all that, listen to the regulations and the case laws that I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live, enter, and possess the land that the Lord, your ancestors’ God, is giving to you. 2 Don’t add anything to the word that I am commanding you, and don’t take anything away from it. Instead, keep the commands of the Lord your God that I am commanding all of you.
3 You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did concerning the Baal of Peor. The Lord your God destroyed everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 but all of you who stayed true to the Lord your God are alive today. 5 So pay attention! I am teaching all of you the regulations and the case laws exactly as the Lord my God commanded me. You must do these in the land you are entering to possess. 6 Keep them faithfully because that will show your wisdom and insight to the nations who will hear about all these regulations. They will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and insightful people!” 7 After all, is there any great nation that has gods[a] as close to it as the Lord our God is close to us whenever we call to him? 8 Or does any great nation have regulations and case laws as righteous as all this Instruction that I am setting before you today?
9 But be on guard and watch yourselves closely so that you don’t forget the things your eyes saw and so they never leave your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren. 10 Remember that[b] day when you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me: “Gather the people to me. I will declare my words to them so that they will learn to fear me every day of their lives on the fertile land, and teach their children to do the same.” 11 Then you all came close and stood at the foot of the mountain. The mountain was blazing with fire up to the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick smoke! 12 The Lord spoke to you out of the very fire itself. You heard the sound of words, but you didn’t see any form. There was only a voice. 13 The Lord declared his covenant to you, which he commanded you to do—the Ten Commandments[c]—and wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 At that time, the Lord commanded me to teach you all the regulations and the case laws that you must keep in the land that you are entering to possess.
15 So watch your conduct closely, because you didn’t see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the very fire itself. 16 Don’t ruin everything and make an idol for yourself: a form of any image, any likeness—male or female— 17 or any likeness whatsoever, whether of a land animal, a bird that flies in the sky, 18 an insect that crawls on the earth, or a fish that lives in the sea. 19 Don’t look to the skies, to the sun or the moon or the stars, all the heavenly bodies, and be led astray, worshipping and serving them. The Lord your God has granted these things to all the nations who live under heaven. 20 But the Lord took you and brought you out of that iron furnace, out of Egypt, so that you might be his own treasured people, which is what you are right now.
21 The Lord was angry with me because of your deeds and swore that I couldn’t cross the Jordan River or enter the wonderful land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 I will die here in this land. I won’t cross the Jordan River. But you will, and you will take possession of that wonderful land. 23 So all of you, watch yourselves! Don’t forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you by making an idol or an image of any kind or anything the Lord your God forbids, 24 because the Lord your God is an all-consuming fire. He is a passionate God.
Warnings and teachings about future disobedience
25 Once you have had children and grandchildren and have grown old on the land, if you ruin things by making an idol, in any form whatsoever, and do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and anger him, 26 I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you today: You will definitely disappear—and quickly—from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan River to possess. You won’t extend your time there but will instead be totally destroyed. 27 The Lord will scatter you among the nations. Only a very few of you will survive in the countries where the Lord will drag you. 28 There you will worship other[d] gods, made of wood and stone by human hands—gods that cannot see, listen, eat, or smell. 29 You will seek the Lord your God from there, and you will find him[e] if you seek him with all your heart and with all your being. 30 In your distress, when all these things happen to you in the future, you will return to the Lord your God and you will obey his voice, 31 because the Lord your God is a compassionate God. He won’t let you go, he won’t destroy you, and he won’t forget the covenant that he swore to your ancestors.
32 Now look into it: into days long past, before your time—all the way back to the day God first created human beings on earth, from one end of heaven to the other. Has anything this amazing ever happened? Has anything like it ever been heard of before? 33 Has any people ever listened to a god’s voice speaking out of fire, as each of you have, and survived? 34 Or has any god ever tried to take one nation out of another nation using tests, miracles, wonders, war, a strong hand and outstretched arm, or awesome power like all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt while you watched? 35 You were shown these things so that you would know this: The Lord is the only God. There’s no other god except him. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice in order to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire. You heard his words from that very fire. 37 And because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, God brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his own great power, 38 in order to remove larger and stronger nations from before you and bring you into their land, giving it to you as an inheritance. That’s where things stand right now. 39 Know then today and keep in mind that the Lord is the only God in heaven above or on earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep the Lord’s regulations and his commandments. I’m commanding them to you today for your well-being and for the well-being of your children after you, so that you may extend your time on the fertile land that the Lord your God is giving you forever.
Cities of refuge
41 Then Moses set aside three cities on the eastern side of the Jordan River 42 so that anyone who killed someone accidentally and without prior hatred could flee to one of these cities and be safe: 43 Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
The second heading: Recounting the Horeb covenant
44 Now this is the Instruction that Moses set before the Israelites. 45 These are the laws and the regulations and the case laws that Moses spoke to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. 46 This took place across the Jordan River, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated when they came out of Egypt. 47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og, Bashan’s king—the two Amorite kings across the Jordan River to the east— 48 from Aroer, which is on the banks of the Arnon River, all the way to Mount Sion,[f] also known as Hermon, 49 and all the desert regions across the Jordan River, on the east, down to the Dead Sea, beneath the slopes of Mount Pisgah.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 4:7 MT; LXX, Syr, Tg a god so close
- Deuteronomy 4:10 Heb lacks remember that.
- Deuteronomy 4:13 Or the ten words
- Deuteronomy 4:28 LXX; MT lacks other.
- Deuteronomy 4:29 Heb lacks him.
- Deuteronomy 4:48 Syr Sirion; see 3:9.
Deuteronomy 4
King James Version
4 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.
2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you.
4 But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;
10 Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
11 And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.
12 And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.
13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.
15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:
19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
20 But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.
21 Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:
22 But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land.
23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.
24 For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
25 When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger:
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
27 And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you.
28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;
31 (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?
33 Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?
34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him.
36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.
37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;
38 To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.
39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.
41 Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;
42 That the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live:
43 Namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites.
44 And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel:
45 These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt.
46 On this side Jordan, in the valley over against Bethpeor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come forth out of Egypt:
47 And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;
48 From Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto mount Sion, which is Hermon,
49 And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain, under the springs of Pisgah.
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